Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)

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The miscellaneous section of the village pump is used to post messages that do not fit into any other category. Please post on the policy, technical, or proposals pages, or - for assistance - at the help desk, rather than here, if at all appropriate. For general knowledge questions, please use the reference desk.

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Pywikipedia

Hello, everyone

Is it possible to create page in a wiki from a list created with special:export ? If yes, how should I proceed ? I am still a beginner on Python

#1. defining wikis
targetwiki = wikipedia.Site('en', 'wikipedia')
sourcewiki = wikipedia.Site('es', 'wikipedia')
#2. getting category
# (?)
category = page.categories(u'category:abcedfg')
#3. creating page from category page list
# (??)
 pagecontent = u"1234567890"
#4. updating page
targetpage = wikipedia.Page(targetwiki, pagetitle)
targetpage.put(pagecontent)

I am not sure about proceeding in the steps where there are questions marks. So I will be grateful for anybody who can help me. Thanks in advance. --Jagwar - (( talk )) 13:53, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi there! Yes, that would be possible, although somewhat difficult to do in Python because you would have to parse the XML output of Special:Export. If you like, I can write the code snippet for you, but wouldn't it be easier to just use Special:Import? - EdoDodo ^talk 12:05, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi, sorry for late reply. Yes, if you can write a snippet code for me, please do so. Because big XML files generates server errors when I try to import them in a wiki, so it is for this reason that I wrote a code to get pages from a category. Thanks you for your help ; best regards. --Jagwar - (( talk )) 08:03, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Improvements to an article where I have a conflict of interest

As you may know, I work for Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit organization based in Washington DC. Since I work there, it would be quite untoward for me to make substantial edits to the article due to conflict of interest. Likewise, our internet strategist has listened to me when I said that it would be untoward for the organization to edit the Wikipedia article about itself. All of us agree that the article is *very* out of date, and needs to be updated and expanded. I've posted to the talk page about problems with the article, but it appears that no one is watching the article except me. What would the group consider to be a proper way to get others to come to improve the article? Obviously, a GA or FA would be a wonderful thing one day, but it's got a long way before reaching that. So your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! SchuminWeb (Talk) 18:58, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

Is there a relevant Wikiproject that you can ask for assistance? – ukexpat (talk) 19:46, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

While it is strongly discouraged, editing despite a COI is not expressly forbidden, simply discouraged because of the obvious concerns about writing in a non-neutral way. If you like, perhaps create a draft copy on a subpage: Talk:Food & Water Watch/Draft or User:SchuminWeb/Draft, or something similar, then ask for input as to whether your draft meets policies like WP:NPOV before moving it to the main space. Resolute 20:06, 19 August 2010 (UTC)

FWIW, it's so patently obvious that many people and/or their publicists edit their own Wikipedia entries. Read a glowing bio with plenty of first-person references and you don't have to scratch your head too long to wonder who wrote it. I think that's one (of many) reasons WP is on the wane. The "strong discouragement" only works with people who have a strong ethical sense. IMHO, the fact that the poster here is broaching this topic suggests to me he/she would be more objective than the person who edits his/her own entry while pretending not to, and there's certainly plenty of that. 71.175.4.207 (talk) 21:57, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

The first thing to do would be to give some indication that your employer meets our notability criteria. The two independent sources in the article only give passing mentions of the subject, and are far from demonstrating that there is significant coverage in independent reliable sources, so there is nothing that helps any other editor to update or expand the article. It seems a little strange that an administrator who seems so keen on deleting articles about other subjects doesn't realise that an article about his own employer needs to meet our inclusion standards. I've just watchlisted the article, so, if you put an independently and reliably sourced draft that meet notability standards on the article talk page, I'll be happy to review it and make the required changes to the article. Phil Bridger (talk) 20:09, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Update on Checkuser and Oversight appointment process

Following the call for applicants (19 July) and the initial call for comments on the candidates (16 August), this notice is a second call for comments from the community on the suitability of the candidates for the September 2010 appointments for checkuser and oversight permissions. The Arbitration Committee is continuing to review and collate the comments received so far. If you have not done so already, please send in your comments before 23:59 on 25 August 2010 (UTC).

Those actively being considered for Checkuser and Oversight permissions are listed here (same link as above). As the primary area of concern is confidence in the candidate's ability to operate within the Wikimedia privacy policy, comments of this nature are best directed to the Committee's mailing list (arbcom-llists.wikimedia.org).

For the Arbitration Committee, Carcharoth (talk) 21:26, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

Discuss this

The Free Dictionary: What Is It's Relation to Wikipedia?

What is the relation of Wikipedia to the internet site known as "TheFreeDictionary?" (Not to be confused with "wikidictionary the free dictionary.")

Most of the articles I find on TheFreeDictionary (FD) are exact or near exact copies of Wikipedia pages, including the photos, although sometimes the links to the enlarged version of the photos on FD don't work.

TheFreeDictionary claims to have served at this time, 2,227,331,289 visitors. (Found in upper left corner of FD pages under the FD name/logo.)

Several links to The Free Dictionary topics are prominately displayed on the webpage refdesk (www.refdesk.com) every day. refdesk.com is a webpage used by many people as their internet browser homepage. It is a kind of reference page. It contains a lot of links to a variety of popular and commonly accessed information and fact websites. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TomBrooklyn (talk • contribs) 05:38, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

EDIT: This was meant to be posed as a question to Wikipedians, and it was believed it would post on some sort of community forum board. I see it has appeared as part of the main page article. I'm not sure if this is appropriate. I will leave it to others to decide this and redirect it if possible and/or notify me of where and how to post the question appropriately. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TomBrooklyn (talk • contribs) 05:42, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Please see WP:MIRROR. Kayau Voting IS evil C U NEXT YEAR 07:23, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

"lede"?

Who the heck came up with this silly practice, and why? Just curious, really. seems like an odd little meme for an educated collection of people to have come up with.
— V = IR (Talk • Contribs) 14:10, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

News style: The most important structural element of a story is the lead (or "intro" in the UK) — the story's first, or leading, sentence. (Some American English writers use the spelling lede (pronounced /ˈliːd/), from the archaic English, to avoid confusion with the printing press type formerly made from lead or the related typographical term leading.) Personally I learned it in journalism class and have used it ever since. It makes me feel stuffy and knowledgeable. --Golbez (talk) 14:37, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

"Lede" is the traditional deliberate mis-spelling, for the reason cited above, of an editor/reporter's discussion about the first paragraph or two of a news story. The spelling is no longer necessary but some of us old farts cling to it .... - DavidWBrooks (talk) 15:05, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Well, you learn something new every day. Far from appearing "stuffy", I think it looks uneducated (reminds me of txt speak), but Ok. Thanks for the explanation.
— V = IR (Talk • Contribs) 15:56, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Wikiproject Watchlists

Hey wikipedians. I'm leaving some spam here about my new tool for wikiprojects. It spits out a watchlist-like feed of recent changes to articles relevant to a wikiproject (articles tagged with the wikiproject's banner). For example, articles with talk pages tagged with {{WikiProject Darts}} have a 'watchlist' here. The tool can be used with any template-based wikiproject. Any and all feedback is welcome. Tim1357 ^talk 19:49, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

Not pissed anymore

For over three months now, I have been trying to contact the Wikipedia:Volunteer response team. Several times now I've send my permission with regard to Talk:Band-e Kaisar, but they all were completely ignored. No response, nada, niente, nichts, nothing. I want to take the shite now down from old granny Wiki. What template can I use for that? Gun Powder Ma (talk) 23:56, 22 August 2010 (UTC)

What on earth are you on about? Please try again, and this time attempt to explain your issue coherently and without the unnecessary swearing. Fences&Windows 01:52, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

It was somewhat hard to find the correct ticket because this specific case's email seems to have been merged to a different case's ticket (Ticket:2010050610015838 is the right one, but there's also Ticket:2010062410023105). I don't think I can un-merge them. Dealing with it now. Gun Powder Ma, in the future you can contact me, Keegan, or a variety of other OTRS workers to see what's happened. But permissions queues usually take the longest because OTRS is inundated with those. Killiondude (talk) 02:24, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks a lot and apologies for the swearing. Frankly, I don't have the slighest idea how the tickets could have been merged, I only did send one email at one time, with each referring to the one(s) before, but I am glad that you quickly sorted this out now. Regards Gun Powder Ma (talk) 08:53, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

I should have been more clear, an OTRS volunteer merged the emails incorrectly. They just saw that it was from the same email address and must have assumed it was about the same thing. No worries, I think everything's sorted now. Killiondude (talk) 16:10, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

They were about the same thing (= permission for Band-e Kaisar), but I trust you have settled the problem now. If not, contact me via email. Gun Powder Ma (talk) 16:51, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Requested move problem

Yesterday I proposed a move of Computersmarts but it's not mentioned at WP:RM. Why?? Georgia guy (talk) 16:24, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

It seems you have substed the template twice, you should've done that just once. I think I have fixed it, let's see if it works. Svick (talk) 18:50, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Yup, that fixed it. Svick (talk) 19:15, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Lanark Grammar School

I plan on organising a research project in school in which several of our students would research the local area then contribute their research to either the English wikipedia or the Simple English wikipedia (dependant on their competancy in English). Each student would have their own account on Wikipedia, which myself and any staff involved would monitor for any vandalism, but the school's IP address is currently blocked due to vandalism by other students. I'd like to create about 3 generic accounts for students who don't yet have accounts. The password for each of these accounts would only be given to one student at a time, so we'd be able to hold students accountable for any inappropriate use of any of the accounts. Would it be okay for me to do this?

Also, I'd like to point out our main areas of focus will be Lanark Grammar School, Lanark, and famous Lanarkians, such as William Wallace and William Smellie. Obvously, we wouldn't be able to do much as only 1 person would be able to edit an article at a time (to prevent edit warring). If there's anything the Wikipedia community would like worked on, we'll be happy to do some research.

Another thing, for the purposes of this project, I'll be using my school username (blackt4098) as I don't want to disclose my username with others outside school. This is just a sockpuppet of this account and will only be used by me. --tb240904 ^{Talk Contribs} 17:14, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

I would need to use these accounts tomorrow so I've created them. They can always be deleted later. They are Lanark Grammar School 1, Lanark Grammar School 2 & Lanark Grammar School 3. --tb240904 ^{Talk Contribs} 22:02, 24 August 2010 (UTC)

Role accounts are not permitted. These ones will probably be blocked. Please see WP:Username policy and WP:School projects for more information. OrangeDog (τ • ε) 22:30, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Sorry if I was a little short. I didn't mean to give the impression that you were in trouble. Every student should have their own account, and you can rename the ones you've already created if you want. OrangeDog (τ • ε) 08:35, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Actually my understanding is that "role accounts" are permitted as long as they are not used in an abusively deceptive manner. I say abusively deceptive because the page on sock accounts seems sympathetic to people who, say, hide their serious professional side while editing articles on comics, even though this is strictly speaking a form of deception. Britmax (talk) 08:56, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

"accounts shared by multiple people are as a rule forbidden and blocked" - from WP:ROLE. The only exceptions are non-editing "email this user" accounts and bots. OrangeDog (τ • ε) 12:52, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

File:OPBayonetLightning-2003.12.02.jpg

Can someone tell me what source that file used to hat on the English WP? thx--Sanandros (talk) 14:53, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Try asking one of these. OrangeDog (τ • ε) 22:51, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Hey! I'm one of those! The deleted local revisions don't include a source. They say only that it was PD as a work of the US government/military. It also looks like more than one image was uploaded at that title. The description on the first edit suggests a different image than the one that was moved to Commons. Resolute 22:55, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

2011 wikicup discussion on possible bonus scoring for more "encyclopedic" content

I am posting this to see if anyone wants to add ideas to Wikipedia_talk:WikiCup/Scoring#Award_more_points_for_vital_articles. I have been musing on how to use wikicarrots rather than sticks to influence content development, which as we all know is at the whim of active contributors :) A few of us have been pondering this in discussing point allocation for the 2011 wikicup and whether introducing some form of multiplier for some types of articles might induce development of audited content in areas currently underrepresented or otherwise more "core" content. Essentially, I am trying to think of concrete categories that can't be gamed - so here's a challenge.

A group of articles that is:

(a) reasonably broad (say > 50 articles, preferably >100) (b) An underrepresented part of the 'pedia in terms of audited content (c) Must be concrete qualifying criteria (d) attempt to cover some "core" encyclopedic content and broad articles. not in-universe (e) not contain numbers of esoteric/minor articles

Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 23:47, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

That sounds like a great idea to me. If people are motivated by awards that is. Pats on back and barnstars work well for some people.Steve Dufour (talk) 02:34, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

WP:Stupidity?

Should stupidity be deleted from Wikipedia? :-) Steve Dufour (talk) 00:16, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Proposed deletion of 2.532 unused PBB Protein-images

I just wanted to inform you that I suggested to delete 2,500+ images here. --MGA73 (talk) 20:19, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

Location of Osama bin Laden

Checking out the Location of Osama bin Laden article, I want to put a section expert template, but I cannot put one on. Anyone know what I should do?? Georgia guy (talk) 14:53, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

This?  Chzz  ►  07:39, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Catholic World Report article

Ok, here is an odd one. I was reading a WP article on the Harry Potter series and there was a section on the Catholic opinion of the books with a reference & wikilink to Catholic World Report. Oddly this wikilink was a redlink which struck me as odd for such a well known publication by Ignatius Press (which is not redlinked). A quick search of en.wikipedia.org (note this was an onsite search, not a Google search) found over 11,000 hits! Yet there is no article on this publication and as far as I can tell never was (I can find no trace of an AFD etc). How very odd don't you think? 66.97.213.52 (talk) 19:56, 28 August 2010 (UTC)

Hi there. You can request this article at WP:AfC. You could also be bold and create the article yourself (you will need to become a registered user first). --tb240904 ^{Talk Contribs} 07:55, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Dead Links

I am starting to gather data for a report on dead links on BLPs, but on a wider note I am doing a general review of links on wikipedia. I checked a number of links on 2008-12-10 decided to re-run the data, its surprising to see the amount of link rot (completely dead) links that are appearing. I know our "policy" states that we should leave said links, but what if they cannot be verified and review/look-up in places like archive.org and archive it fail? should we permanently leave questionable link (and probable sources) that cannot be verified in articles or should they be removed after a period of attempted verification? Should we develop a prod like process for addressing these cases or just leave them and trust that they actually contain the information that is claimed? I know I have seen many many cases where users claim a source states something, only to find out upon verification that the users claims are wrong? ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 02:45, 29 August 2010 (UTC)